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The Band's Best Album Just Got a Whole Lot Better!

Frederick Baptist | Singapore | 02/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Band never seems to be discussed as widely as compared to their more "illustrious" peers of the late 60's and early 70's and yet in many ways as this classic album shows, they more than held their own and perhaps deserves a lot more recognition for their works. This, their first album, is just a great classic album in which the complete album and not any specific tracks per se make it great although 3 tracks here were written by the great Bob Dylan himself for them.



As you listen through the album, The Band shows just how good they are as musicians in the way they expertly play their instruments but they also show their great ability to play in various different styles. You get samples of early Clapton and Crosby, Stills, Nash and especially Neil Young influences. Robbie Robertson also shows that he is not out of his depth as a songwriter too.



This version is a real treat for Band fans as I have not seen a mini-replica vinyl sleeve done as well as it is here; a veritable work of art in and of itself. We also get an insert which contains all the lyrics in both English and Japanese. Not only has the entire album been remastered to near perfection for great quality sound, we also get 9 bonus tracks representing demos and outtakes of the main tracks as well as others such as "Yazoo Street Scandal", "Katie's Been Gone", "If I Lose", "Long Distance Operator", "Orange Juice Blues" and "Ferdinand the Imposter".



Overall, this is a brilliant classic that should be in every music collector's library and this version is definitely the best one that is currently out there.



Highly recommended."